North American natural gas futures prices barreled through the $6.00/MMBtu ceiling this week as supply worries and soaring global natural gas demand combined to tighten the market.

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After significant gains on Monday and Tuesday, the May New York Mercantile Exchange futures contract settled at $6.029 on Wednesday, off three-tenths of a cent from Tuesday’s close. June was basically unchanged at $6.107.

That’s three straight weeks of powerful momentum for U.S. natural gas prices, and analysts don’t see a slowdown. Until there is clear evidence of increasing U.S. production growth, “bounds on the upside are somewhat unconstrained without Mother Nature stepping in and providing relief for market participants with short interest,” Mobius Risk Group said.

U.S. supply is...